Salt Spring Centre School is closing early for the holiday season due to a confirmed case of COVID-19.
School principal Carol Bremner confirmed the closure on Monday following receipt of a letter from Island Health medical health officer Dee Hoyano advising of the positive test result for a member of the school community. Potential exposure to others occurred on Dec. 3, states the letter.
While Island Health does not release details about individual cases, the school’s office administrator Shauna Klem stated on her Facebook page Monday that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and was quarantining along with her children. Klem said, “I would rather people heard it from me . . . than spread misinformation.”
The Island Health letter states that contact tracing is being undertaken and only individuals contacted will be required to self-isolate for 14 days from the exposure date and monitor themselves for symptoms.
Salt Spring Centre School is an independent school located on the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga property on Blackburn Road.
Gulf Islands Secondary School is the only other school on Salt Spring Island to record a COVID-19 case so far. On Monday, GISS principal Lyall Ruehlen said school community members who had been required to self-isolate for 14 days would return to school on Friday. No other cases had been confirmed at GISS as of Monday.